Fruited flour and process of making same



UNITED STATES PATENT oFFIoE.

NATHANIEL C. FOWLER, JR., OQFVBOSTGN, MASSACHUSETTS; FANNIE A. FOWLER ADMINISTRATRIX 0F SAID NATHANIEL C. FOWLER, JR", DECEASED.

- mUITED rLo'Un m) process or MAKING SAME.

'10 Drawing. Application filed August 8, 1916, 'serial No. 113,764. Renewed August 17, 1919. Serial No.

More particularly it relatesrto fruited flour of the type disclosed in my United States Letters Patent No. 1,182,264. It is an object of the invention to provide an improvement' in the method of manufacture,,and also in the product, of flour in which there is a considerable fruit component, arranged in such finely divided. form that the product as a whole has the characteristics of flour in its availability for baking bread and has the characteristics of fruit as regards taste, food value, physiological effects, etc. 'One particular in which the process of manufacture herein set forth differs from that disclosed in my said Letters Patent is that it provides a method by which less heat and less time are required for drying the mixture. The ultimate object being to eliminate moisture, this improvement is effected by first adding water, as a preliminary to the drying. afterwhich the entire body can be dried more rapidly than if the water had not been added.

For a clearer understanding of the invention I give an illustration of the use of the process with wheat flour and raisins as the principal ingredient materials. The

seeds may if desired be removed from the raisins. which it'will' be noted are already a derivative product, resulting after a certain degree, of drying of the original fruit. Then theraisins are cut fine by machine, for which mechanism of the type of the ordinary domestic meat chopper serves, having a tubular passage within which a screw conveyer carries the contents against a perforated plate through which the finely cut product issues. Cereal flour may be mixed with it in the machine if desired as this facilitates the cutting of somekinds of fruit From this the cut raisins drop into hot water. The water is sufficient in quantity to make a semi-liquid paste. To this is added ordinary white wheat flour, or such other flour as it may be desired to use, and the two are thoroughly mixed. The added flour absorbs the Water and makes the whole mass rather dry. The quantity of flour may, for example, be about equal to the quantity of raisins. A mixture in about this proportion, or whateverproportion is chosen, when finished, constitutes a base? which may afterward be blended with othermaterial as desired for marketing, or for use. This mixture is put again through the comminuting mechanism. As it issues in worm like rods from the perforated discharge plate thereof, it may be dusted with previously completed fruit flour of the same variety and component proportions. Plain cereal flour might be used, but the fruited flour makes no change of the proportions or thorou-ghness' of the general intermixture. The dust, which may be thrown by a blower or by hand, prevents the individual rods of material from sticking together as they fall. The mass is then'broken into, smaller pieces by passing it through a machine such as a picker, or coarse grinder. Following this comes the drying process, which may be executed in an oven, or preferably by using a vacuum drier or a dry room.

After this the dried product may be milled and bolted like flour. The residue which is too coarse to pass through the bolting Specification of Letters Patent. Patented Mai. 16, 1920 i screen may be ground with some later batch A of material, so that all is used. I have found by experience that the material attains the desired dryness more rapidly and with employment of less heat when water is added to the moisture already in it. at the beginning, as above described, than when the raisins are treated in their natural .state. Without knowing with certainty the reason, I believe it to be that the added water dissolves and extracts more or less of the fruit sugar that 15 within the ralsin material and by the comminuting operat n is more thordesired properties.

' power.

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ough. At the same time, such of the jelly like material as remains within the cellular structure becomes fluid and thus more easily passes out. Also the cereal flour is the betadded water, and then causing the cereal flour to absorb the. moisture, including the added water, which because of its fluidity spreads well through the mass, considerably greater effective evaporating surface is provided, with the result that the evaporation proceeds more quickly. The flour acting like a blotter draws moisture and with it sugar from the raisin material and holds it in such shape that the moisture is more quickly given ofitherefrom during the evaporating processthan if the moisture had to be extracted from astifier jelly form in the cellular'structure of the raisin material. At the same time the removal of thesugar leaves the cellular structure in such shape that the remainder of the moisture can be dried more quickly and also promotes the breaking down of the'cellular structure as a preliminary to the extraction of moi'sture. The effect of the Whole is to'reducetime and labor and wear of machinery, and to in-' crease the output of aplant of given size involved in the process. P The water also has'a definiteefi'ect in enabling the comminutio'u to be carried out with less expenditure of For this purpose it may be introduced earlier 'than as above specifie'd, if desired, the advantage gained by this varying 'with different fruit-s. 'Anoth'er effect of the water is to make the distribution'ofthe' fruit component more uniform throughout the cereal flour. It is contemplated thatthe drying will be'carriedout so that the flourof tent ofordinaryfiour, which varies according to the humidity of the" atmosphere, but may be in the j'vicinity of1;1Q% tof12% when 'sd'prpared. So far' as my experiments have gonathe productkeeps as well as ordinary flour. It may however be made to keep betterthan ordinary flour by subjecting it to a pasteurization treament; as by raising it to a temperature of 140 F., for two hours or so,'to kill all insect life of the raisin'and all pathogenic'germ life.

The base product thus 'described,'having about half fruit and half flour,";will ordinarily require admixture of additional flour in order to make a final product having the For example, a mixture having cerealrflour andraisins in theproportion of 4 or5 to 1 is satisfactory for many purposes. Thisffinal'mixture can'be' made by sim le addition of sufiicient cereal'flour ase. to make particular roportions desired. Thi's' may be done before the prod- '1 claim as my invention:

subsequent drying of" the whole. the completed product has the moisture connot is marketed, or the base product itself 'may be packed as a commercial product,

leaving it for the user to add to. the base more of the same kind of cereal flour or such other flour as he or she maywishin order to get the completed fruit flour which has both the characteristics of flour and of fruit.

I The term flour as herein used is not limited to the ordinary white wheat flour,

nor to any single variety of flour used alone as distinguished from the use of a combinationof severalkinds of flour; The :process and ingredients particularly above described For an illustration of a fruit not so dried, peaches maybe taken In case of such a fruit, not previously dried, it is desirable to desiccate the fruit by some suitable prochas already undergone a drying process.

ess, as 'by Slicing and then exposing in a vacuum to promote evaporation, or byiotherwise drying, after which the fruit may be treated as hereinbefore described.

It is'intended that the patent, by suitable expression in the appended claims, shall cover whatever features of patentable novelty exist in the invention herein disclosed.

1. A proeess'of makinga fruited flour, in-

cluding the comminution of dried'fruit, the addition of water'thereto, mixture therewith of ground cereal, of the Whole. 7

2. A process of making a fruited flour, in-

and the subsequent drying eluding the comminuti on of dried fruit, the

treatment of the same with hotwater, the mixture of ground cereal therewith, and the 3. A process of making a fruit'ed'fiour,

including the comminution of dried fruit,

subsequent drying of the mixture followed by the'milling thereof. r I V 5. A process of inaking a fruited flour, in-

cluding the connninution of dried fruit, the

treatment of the comminut ed; ma with water, the addition of cereal flour, the further comminution of'the mixture, thedusting of the material 'thus comminuted' with "flour as it fall s from thecomminuting machine, and itssubsequent drying, milling and bolting.

6. A process of making a'fruited'fiounin- "eluding the comminution of dried fruit, the

treatment of the comm-inuted fruit with moved therefrom and deposited on the 10 water, the addition of cereal flour, the breakground cereal component of the mixture. ing up of the mixture into small masses, and Signed by me at Provincetown, Mass, this the sulifeqiient drying of the mixture folfourth day of August, 1916.

lowed y t e milling thereof. T

7. A food product in the form of flour, in- LATHANIEL FOWLER cluding comminuted desiccated fruit and Witnesses: ground cereal, soluble contents of the cel- WILLIAM S. BIRGE, lular structure of the fruit having been re- ETHEL P. HUNTING. 

